It's Friday! And I was at a loss what to do for the diary today, so I'm going to give you all the recipe and instructions for making a Pennsylvania Dutch Meat Pie. This is the way my Great-grandmother taught my mother to make it, who then taught my sisters and myself, and now we're teaching our children. It's not a quick dish, but it's warm and filling and perfect for a cold winter's day. And it is one you can make ahead of time, stick in the fridge and bake the next day.
As you can see by Itzl's concerned look, this group is for us to check in at to let people know we are alive, doing OK, and not affected by such things as heat, blizzards, floods, wild fires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, or other such things that could keep us off DKos. It's also so we can find other Kossacks nearby for in-person checks when other methods of communication fail - a buddy system. Members come here to check in. If you're not here, or anywhere else on DKos, and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, etc.), we and your buddy are going to check up on you. If you are going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care!
IAN is a great group to join, and a good place to learn to write diaries. Drop one of us a PM to be added to the Itzl Alert Network anytime! We all share the publishing duties, and we welcome everyone who reads IAN to write diaries for the group! Every member is an editor, so anyone can take a turn when they have something to say, photos and music to share, a cause to promote or news!
Ok, we do have a diary schedule. But, when you are ready to write that diary, either post in thread or send FloridaSNMOM a Kosmail with the date. If you need someone to fill in, ditto. FloridaSNMOM is here on and off through the day usually from around 9:30 or 10 am eastern to around 11 pm eastern.
Monday:
BadKitties
Tuesday:
bigjacbigjacbigjac
Wednesday:
Caedy
Thursday:
weck
Friday:
FloridaSNMOM
Saturday:
broths
Sunday:
loggersbrat
The first step is to make the dough for the pie crust. This needs to be refrigerated for 5-7 hours before it's rolled out. We made the dough about 9:30 in the morning so it would be ready for dinner. I made 1.5 times this recipe for the meat pie because the dough needs to be rolled thicker and needs to fit down into the deep baking dish.
2 cups flour
1 cup Crisco
1 tsp. salt
1/4 to 1/2 cup cold water
Blend flour and salt.
Cut in Crisco and whisk until flour is in pea sized clumps
Add 1/4 cup of water, fold
Add 1/4 cup of water and fold again if needed (You can add a bit more as needed to form the dough)
Dough will be sticky.
Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate 5-7 hours.
Makes 3 thin crusts or 2 thicker crusts.
Then around 4:15 we started working on dinner, with planning for it to be ready to eat around 6:30.
You need:
1 1/2 lb beef-cubed
1/4 cup flour
3 TBS oil
2 cups water
1 1/4 cups chopped onion
3/4 cup sliced carrots
1/2 tsp pepper
1 cup tomatoes
2 tsp salt
2 cups diced potatoes
1/4 cup flour
3/4 cups water
2 TBS Worcestershire Sauce
1.5 recipe pie crust (from above)
Roll cubed beef in 1/4 cup of flour, brown in oil in deep pan.
Add 2 cups water, cover, simmer 30 minutes or until tender.
Add onion, carrots, tomatoes, potatoes salt and pepper and cook until tender stirring frequently.
Combine flour, water and W. sauce- add to meat mixture to thicken gravy.
Roll out bottom dough 1/3 inch thick.
Line deep casserole dish with dough.
Pour in meat/veg mixture.
Roll top layer of dough 1/4 inch thick.
Cover Casserole with top layer, cut vent holes in dough.
Bake in 400 degree oven 40-60 minutes until dough is golden brown.
(Hint: Make sure you put something to catch any boil overs underneath, I use an aluminum foil cookie sheet left over from Christmas.)
This meat pie easily feeds 5-8 people, even very hungry people coming in from a day of cutting and splitting wood in the snow, or shoveling out a long driveway. These are the types of days my mom usually made this meal.
Do you have any favorite recipes from childhood that you make now? How is your day going?